SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE
Surface adsorption of triblock copolymer (PEO–PPO–PEO) on cellulose nanocrystals and their melt extrusion with polyethylene
Abstract
Cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) have gained a lot of interest in recent years in the field of composites due to their unique mechanical properties and also because cellulose is the most abundant and renewable polymer in nature. In this work, Pluronic grade triblock copolymer was adsorbed on the surface of CNC in order to improve the thermal stability and also its dispersion from the dried state. The adsorbed cellulose nanocrystals (A-CNC) were characterized to check their thermal, functional and structural properties by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Interestingly, improved thermal stability was observed and also the dispersion of A-CNC in aqueous medium was much better than for unmodified CNC. The aqueous A-CNC suspensions were characterized by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) to evaluate the dispersion of the nanoparticles. The flow properties of A-CNC dispersions were also analyzed. Further, A-CNC was used to prepare nanocomposites by melt extrusion using linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) as matrix. The thermo mechanical and morphological properties of the ensuing nanocomposites were characterized by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The dispersion state of A-CNC within the polymeric matrix was also characterized by SAXS.
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